Crash Test Dummies

A young Romanian couple arrive in Vienna for a no-budget holiday, get into a spat, and go their separate ways, the man hooking up with a horny blond travel agent and the woman falling under the wing of a balding nebbish who monitors surveillance cameras at a supermarket. In a feeble attempt to impose some sort of theme on the meandering story, writer-director Joerg Kalt sets this 2005 German-Austrian feature on the eve of the European Union's recent expansion to include ten eastern countries. One of the oddball characters works as a test subject for a car company, and her daily routine of simulated crashes provides an ironic contrast to the movie's limited impact. In English and subtitled German and Romanian. 93 min.
ByJ.R. Jones